Justice Is Good For The Soul
by Late 2 The Party 2
Summary: An idea popped into my head.


AN- I don't have access to the older seasons of Grey's. I'm doing this from memory, combined with trying to write this as fast as I can as to get support out to those who need it. Doing my best.

Interns doing specialty rotations (peds, gyn, etc) have been phased out of a lot of medical programs, but a lot of hospitals have held onto that as it gives interns a better idea of just exactly what specialty they really want to be in- opinion formed by experience, not just a best guess. I seem to recall hints that everyone on Greys did 'rotations'. I'm going to stick with that for this. Also found out some info that allowed me to tweek my original idea for this story up an unexpected 2 notches. Story idea went from acceptably good to savage burnination.

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Alex stopped his forward motion, froze, then walked backward two paces, while still facing forward. He was right, that's exactly what his brain said he saw.

Some scrawny, unaccompanied kid was standing in the middle of the side hallway. As he cast a non-obvious glance, he noticed the kid looked terrified. She was shaking, tiny, with dark shell-shocked looking eyes, and a body the size of a baby bird's. She also happened to be standing in the hallway that the ER escapees came into most often. The irate people who got a damn paper cut and to hell with triage protocol, barreled through the doors demanding to see a doctor because they were dying.

Karev rolled his eyes at the thought. "Assholes."

But this kid...she looked like him. A female version of him. She was fucked up. He stuffed his vending machine dinner in his coat pocket.

Trying not to look obvious about it, he walked towards her. She looked on the fence between wanting help, and worried to get it.

"Hey," he kept his voice low, that with practice he'd learned to keep the sarcastic edge off of it when speaking to kids, "do you need help?"

She gave him a searching stare for a long, long moment. Looking right into his eyes, but seeing into his soul. When he realized that was what she was doing, he prepared to walk away. She didn't want him. Wouldn't want him to help her. No one ever did. Alex was never the one who was chosen. Cast aside ignored and misjudged, and always not wanted. It was stamped on his forehead and his soul.

Feeling worthless again he assumed that she wouldn't trust him either. The women on staff didn't. They only saw darkness in Alex and steered clear. Why would anyone see anything else? That was pretty much all that was left to him anyway. The darkness. The void.

"They said you're supposed to go to the hospital," the sudden sound of a voice shook him out of his own thoughts. He was shocked when he realized she was talking to him.

"get a SAE, don't drink or pee or touch anyone."

It was clear she was reciting a list from memory.

Not wanting to spook her, Alex kept his voice casual, non-threatening, "Who said?"

SHe didn't look at him.

"The internet."

He nodded sagely. "Of course," he agreed. But as he kept himself calm, his brain was running images through his mind. The words she'd spoken to him brought up image after image. The list she'd recited? It was part of the standard rape and assault exam questionaire.

The words that were still spilling out of the mouth of an infant about rape protocol made his brain feel twisted upside down. Hell, maybe he heard her wrong. He hoped he had.

Brusquely because he didn't like the thought of it, he said, "Again please? I don't know if I heard you right."

She gave an exhausted sigh, and looked at him with the same eyes Izzy often did when she was disgusted with him. But she was silent.

Not being a shrink, he just blurted it out. "Are you telling me someone raped you?" His voice echoed, louder than he thought it would be, a mixture of disgust and rage.

"I had to look it up," she answered slowly as if he were slow, "but if you mean a guy putting his penis in your vagina then yes. They said I need evidence and an exam at a hospital-"

"The internet."

"Well it's not like they teach this in school!" She cried, angry about it. "I got a phone for my birthday, I looked it up."

Alex felt like someone had just slapped him upside the head.

"I just," she sighed again exhausted, the way the kids at the orphange did a lot, something he did a lot, because it was exhausting existing that way, "I didn't know what to do. If I go to the front desk at the ER they'll make me have a parent before they do anything."

He felt a cold chill go through his body and he shuddered in spite of himself.

Glancing around the space he saw no one he thought would be of particular help. If Addison Shepherd were around, he'd grab her, but he knew she was upstairs in surgery at that very moment, and it was Bailey's day off.

He thought of Christina, Izzy, Meredith, George.

Too bitchy, too cheery, too innocent, too stupid. He shook his head at all choices. This kid was too much like him. He could see it in her eyes. It was a look he saw a lot of in foster care. The empty pain, trying to deny how much just existing hurt.

No, he decided it would have to be him. He already decided to take the kid under his wing. And he was possessive. This kid was his. Maybe she would care that he was a guy, but maybe, just maybe she would see a kindred spirit instead.

He realized he was just standing there not saying anything, so he blurted out the first thing that came to mind.

"You don't want your parents here to help you?"

She shrank back as if he'd raised a hand to her. Instant. Instinctive. And Alex knew. Fuck, he knew before.

Then she looked at him beseeching, begging. "Please," she hissed, "please, I need this. But don't tell my parents. They just... they wouldn't help me."

He blinked tears back into his face and forced his stomach to chill. "I didn't know what to do before. I can't call the cops, but I can come here."

"You're a doctor, you're suppsed to help, so help me."

"You're like, what, five?"

"Ten."

"Coulda fooled me."

"Are you gonna help me or not?" Her voice echoed on the walls.

Alex stared at this fucking kid who looked like the girl from the Never Ending Story movie, the girl that everyone was supposed to protect, and he wanted to punch someone. He felt like he was seeing through her, like he was either floating or sinking. He could get in a lot of trouble for doing this. An exam on a minor without parental permission?

"Fuck the rules," he hissed. Then glanced down at her. "What? I know you've heard worse."

She said nothing.

"Right now I'm on duty, and I have been trained to do standard rape exams," he muttered as if talking to himself, "but you're like five so I feel like I need to get a pediatrician."

"Ten." She stared at him, trying to look older, her sandy hair falling over her face in long chunks, her eyes still dark. But at least she didn't look as terrified as she had a moment ago. He was going to help her.

"Whatever."

Roughly, he grabbed her by a shoulder and steered her in front of him, so she'd be harder to see.

They'd only been standing there a matter of seconds, but Alex knew it was time to move before someone started asking questions.

"What's your name anyway," he hissed the words as he kept steering her forward like a small ship, parting the seas of the hospital hallway.

"Fiona," she hissed back.

"What's your last name?" He could at least put that much on the paper work.

"Evans."

Karev stopped their forward motion.

"Shit."


End file.
